Saturday, April 07, 2007

LIT SOUP's birthday contest

As I announced before, we're going to have a contest to celebrate LIT SOUP turning one year old on April 24th. Since that's right around Shakespeare's birthday, I've decided to be the tiniest bit evil. =)

The contest is as follows:

On April 24th, I will post a contest post, and you must leave your contest entry in the comments of that post. To enter the contest, you must write a Shakespearean sonnet involving the word "soup". Tips on writing a sonnet can be found here and here; yours doesn't necessarily have to be in iambic pentameter, but you get extra credit for writing it that way. I reserve the sole right and discretion to pick the winners and award the prizes for first through third places.

First Place: Skip the query pile! If you win first place, you automatically get to send me a partial, and I will consider it, just the same as if I had requested it.

Second Place: A galley of THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE by Nathalie Mallet! Read the book months before anyone else gets a chance to do so!

Third Place: A small box of nice chocolate!

If you win first place and do not need it, you can exchange it for the same thing as third place. I will ship internationally, but if you choose to receive the box of chocolate and are an international winner, I reserve the right to substitute a $10 Amazon gift certificate instead, pending the regulations for shipping food to your country.

So, put your writing caps on, and start churning out sonnets, folks. =) Remember, don't post any of them in the comments of this post, as the official contest thread will open on April 24th and end on April 25th, approximately twenty-four hours later.

Strange as it may sound, I'm not really interested in First Prize. I don't want an agent reading my story unless she really wants to. Maybe that doesn't make any sense in the grand scheme of things, but that was my first thought.

What I want is Second Prize! Sure, I'd love Third too, but I know where to get good chocolate anyway. But, how many times does one get to read a terrific novel before anyone else?